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| Maybe Austen is right, Penn seems to have grown. I should stick him again. |
I love Loch Moy. Stabling is beautiful. The rings are great (especially the one we were in that had some new awesome footing!). I love the trek to warm up through the XC fields (ok, that's more annoying when I want to walk down to the show office though, haha). It's just a nice place, with excellent friends!
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| Schooling Friday with Sugarloaf Mountain in the background. Picture courtesy of Austen |
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| Picture courtesy of Austen |
Penn was good Friday to school- he gave me some sass about the left lead counter canter... basically I put way too much right leg on to maintain the left lead and he says, "WTF do you want, I'm already on that lead!" So not his fault. He was also really super in the strong wind that had picked up.
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| Lyra!!! We got up close and personal this weekend, bahaha. Such a happy dog! Picture courtesy of Austen |
First test up on Saturday was our first try at 2-2. I was kind of nervous- Penn is still lacking in parts of his training and I really didn't want to add a sub-60 score to our record. I was going to be happy with anything over 60%! I also opted to put on Mikey's blue ear bonnet. It was super buggy, the wind was starting to pick up, and Penn sometimes goes better in a bonnet.
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| My mom is awesome, and I think it's hilarious that it looks like she's coaching me in this pic, haha. Picture courtesy of Austen |
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| It was a family affair this weekend! Husband was our videographer. Picture courtesy of Austen |
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| For the love of all, I need to sit up straight. Picture courtesy of Austen |
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| So much power... that went basically no where, lol. |
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| Picture courtesy of Austen |
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| Weee! Hopping left hind then getting drunk! Nah, I think he spooked at P. Why P, I have zero clue. All the letters look the same. |
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| Picture courtesy of Austen |
He was so good for this test! There are a bunch of places where we gave away points, but it's an early attempt at second level for us. I love how steady the lateral work was, but we gave away points in the two half circles. I had a brain fart during them and forgot to bend my horse properly. The free walk was a mess- he wanted to canter off right away so we had jigging while I tried to settle him. For the simple changes, I counted 1-2-3-WALK from R/P to B. While I started the simple change too early doing that, it gave me a constructive way of collecting him for the walk, and I was happy to be rewarded for it (6.5 and 7). We gave away points in both halts, which makes me sad because we're better than that.
I was SO EXCITED to get the test back and it was a 63.590%!!!! Yea, I was 3rd out of 4, but I don't care, it was his first recognized second level test! We made some mistakes in it too, which made me even happier that it was a 63+%. Just super exited. Newly minted, official (because I don't really count schooling shows), second level horse!
Saturday: 1-3
Much later that afternoon we tacked up again to ride 1-3 for what I hoped would be the last time until September. I got good scores at CDCTA's show at the start of May, but only one of them could be a qualifying score. I needed this test to be my second qualifying score, especially since I did not enter 1-3 on Sunday and I didn't want to have to hunt down another show to ride 1-3.
Of course this test made me nervous because it was the second test of the day, and I've NEVER had good luck with Penn riding a second time in a day. He's usually on board to work, but isn't as good as the first ride.
I came down to the ring a bit late though (last I heard they were running behind and I did not want to wear him out in warm up). I was immediately shuffled off to the warm up next to the show ring so I had 6 min to lay down some kind of warm up... that made me a bit nervous too. As part of my warm up, I practiced walking a step into the halt and I could feel good halts coming, so I was confident about that. His leg yields felt good, everything just felt good.
I shouldn't have been nervous, he rocked it!
The lengthenings need work, just like the mediums from 2-2 need work. 7 and 7.5 for those leg yields = happy Jan. 7 on the stretchy with the comment "Really consistent" = happy Jan. I let him get away from me in the circle-halt-circle though!! He wanted to shift his haunches in on the right hand circle, and then I didn't let him take that single walk step for the halt at X!!! Ughhhhh the points I just gave away!!! Then slow off the halt too, because of aforementioned not square. I realized part way though the first 15m circle that he needed more canter, but I'm not sure I got it. The change of lead through trot happened much faster than I planned- I was late cuing for it, then he felt ready to canter again immediately so I asked for canter quickly. It worked out this time! He started crapping out on me in the left lead 15m circle, like he did at CDCTA's second day, but I got him moving again... that lengthening became "bolder effort" because I was like, "Get the hell unstuck!" Then I promptly forgot where I was going, so the one loop got a wiggle to start. The perk of first level is being able to post/sit as desired, so I posted my final lengthening to try to get the most out of it... which worked ok, he got a 6.5. I told him after the final halt, "Oh you're such a good boy!" and the judge said, "He is a good boy!" Haha!
Austen and I got my last score when we went down for the competitor's party- 68.088%, first out of 5 (2 AA and 3 Open), and a bottle of wine!
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| Wahoo! |
The party was good- the two shows this weekend were so small that they only ran one ring each day (with a different judge each day). So it was a small group of us at the party. They had some weak margaritas (who cares about weak though), excellent chips and dip from a local Mexican restaurant, and a few more things that I don't remember.
Austen and I went back up and grazed the horses on the XC course, where I saw a skunk and ran away from it. It was really buggy where we were grazing so we didn't hang out there for too long.
It was such a great day- great people, beautiful weather, a newly minted second level horse, a great qualifying score, and a bottle of wine!
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| Yupp, looks like the face of a second level horse to me! |
Congrats on your newly minted 2nd level horse! (also, I want to go to a show where they give out bottles of wine for winning classes, lol)
ReplyDeleteThank you! Wine is a great prize!
DeleteTotal rockstars! And hell yeah to the bottle of wine prize.
ReplyDeleteWine prize = awesome
Deletewooooo congrats! that's awesome that they set you up in that arena too - that's usually where they have the stadium jumping for events
ReplyDeleteI was originally sad that we weren't in the big ring, but I really liked the ring we ended up in. Especially being able to warm up next to the show ring!
DeleteYOU WIN WINE AT THIS SHOW?!?! That alone worth the trip!
ReplyDeleteHaha, it is the first time I've won wine. I've won a bunch of wine glasses, but this is the first time I've gotten something to go in them!
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